During the holiday season, many people bring Christmas trees into their homes for both decorative and religious purposes. The Christmas trees often vary in height and size, creating varying degrees of difficulty in supporting the trees in a stable position. Other people purchase or rent trees, tiki torches or other pole-type items for special events and occasions. In these cases as well, it is difficult to support these items in a stable manner. Often, the result is that the trees, poles or other items are either leaned against a wall or propped up in some other unstable way. This lack of a proper support device can lead to a number of unwanted consequences. A tree falling from an unstable position can cause not only property damage but can also physical harm to a person. Likewise, a falling tiki torch or a pole-type item with a candle or other lit object on top could ignite a fire.
Previous attempts have been made to provide a support device for Christmas trees. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,970,655 issued to Freeman discloses a Christmas tree resting inside a collar member having a radial extension and a rod between the tree and the radial extension. The Freeman patent requires the attachment of a rod to a portion of the tree, a time-consuming and difficult process. Additionally, the Freeman patent does not provide a collar capable of being adjusted to the varying thickness of different trees or other pole-type members.
Another example is U.S. Pat. No. 5,137,246 issued to Idso. Idso discloses a stand for Christmas trees comprised of a base plate with a pair of spaced-apart upright brackets mounted thereon. The tree holder receptacle is pivotally mounted between the upright brackets so that is can move about a horizontal axis in order to orient the tree trunk to a generally vertical position, A pair of locking levers is associated with the upright brackets so that they can be releasably clamped to orient the tree holder receptacle in any desired position. A set screw is provided to accept the tree into the tree holder receptacle. A problem with Idso is the lack of an adjustable support arm to provide proper support and stabilize the tree trunk in the tree stand.
Therefore, a need existed to provide a system and method to overcome the above problem.